He wasn’t, was he? Rafael considered this as she locked eyes with the cheese display.
“Oh, all right,” he said, going over to get her one of the little squares. It was then that he noticed the sign—jalapeño cheddar. He already had the square in a small piece of paper in his hand, and went back to Hope. “I don’t know if you’ll like this,” he said cautiously. “It’s spicy, because it has—”
Before he could finish the sentence, she’d grabbed the cheese out of his hand and popped it in her mouth.
One chew, then two…her expression changed, going from curiosity to disgust, and then she clapped her little hands over her mouth. “Spicy!” she shouted.
“Rafael told you it was spicy,” said Felicity, laughing a little. “Here. Spit it out, if you need to.” Felicity reached over and took the paper from Rafael’s hand, getting it back to Hope’s mouth just in time to catch the half-chewed piece of cheese.
Yes. An adventure.
They finally ended up by the strawberries, and that was when one of the store employees took the chance to approach. Rafael had no problem with this—anytime he made a public appearance like this, everyone was vetted ahead of time—and Hope was utterly delighted when the man offered to cut up a sampling of the strawberries for them to taste. Hope watched as he cut two strawberries into quarters, handing them to Rafael in a little plastic cup.
“More, please,” she said sweetly, and Rafael thought his heart would never recover. He put a slice of strawberry into her mouth and her eyes lit up.
“It’s good, isn’t it?” He had a bite of the strawberry himself. They were perfect.
Hope gestured to the cup, still with its slices inside. “Cupcakes,” she said solemnly, and Rafael knew exactly what she was asking.
“As soon as we get home, I’ll help you make strawberry cupcakes,” he promised. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Felicity smiling again.
Less than an hour later, they were out of the store and back at the castle. Rafael had a private kitchen in his apartments. It had gone mostly unused since he became the king, but now, with Hope perched on the counter and Felicity standing next to him, he wondered why he’d put it off so long.
“That was a success,” he said, pouring the cupcake mix into a large mixing bowl. Felicity had set out all the other ingredients—eggs, vegetable oil, milk—while Hope played with a set of measuring cups.
“I have to agree. I’m pretty proud of myself,” Felicity said, pretending to flip her hair back.
“It almost made me wish we could do that more often.”
Felicity laughed. “You don’t have time to do the grocery shopping.”
“I know it.” But still, this felt good. This wasn’t a photo op or a publicity stunt. This was just a man enjoying his daughter—and his daughter’s mother.
* * *
Somehow, the afternoon got away from them. By the time the cupcakes were baked, cooled, frosted, and eaten, Hope was rubbing her eyes. They’d had another tea party gathered around Rafael’s table, this time with the cupcakes they’d baked, and one thing had led to another until it was evening.
“Bedtime,” Felicity said, reaching for her daughter.
“No.” Hope pouted. “Rafael.”
He looked over from where he stood at the counter. “Did you call for me, sweetheart?”
“Go to bed,” Hope said, and Felicity didn’t miss the way Rafael lit up at the sight of it. He was there in an instant, lifting her out of her high chair and into his arms.
“I’ll take you to bed.” He glanced at Felicity for permission.
“Go right ahead.” Her heart had never been so warm…and so conflicted. It was one thing to be getting the hang of royal protocol. It was another to think about maintaining it for the rest of her life. What other pressures might they face? Could she stand it if, one day, Rafael wanted to go back to being married in public and living separate lives behind closed doors?
After he left, she stood in the empty kitchen, surveying the mess. It was all a sign of a very good time, and she hummed to herself as she filled the sink with warm water and tipped in the measuring cups one by one. This was nice, she thought to herself. It felt normal to be here, doing the dishes with all the time in the world. Plus, she’d get to lick the bowl.
“Cleaning up?” Rafael came back into the kitchen and stepped to her side, the warmth of him evident in the air. He lifted the mixing bowl and tipped it toward the sink.
“Wait!” she cried. “I was going to lick that.”
Rafael met her eyes, a dancing heat in his. “Lick what, exactly?”
“Well.” Felicity could feel the color rushing to her cheeks. “The bowl. There’s still so much delicious mix in there.”
“Delicious mix,” he repeated, putting it back down on the surface of the counter. “You know, Felicity, if you want things to lick, there are other alternatives. Do you really want to risk your health on raw eggs?”
“Other alternatives?” She pulled her hands from the warm, sudsy water and dried them on a towel that hung below the sink.
Rafael leaned in and kissed her, and Felicity found herself reacting without thinking. She swirled her tongue around his bottom lip, then took it in between her teeth.
“Mmmm. Like that. You’ve got the idea.”
Then he was lifting her to the counter, and Felicity thought she might spontaneously combust. Rafael kissed her like he’d been waiting all day to do it and couldn’t wait another moment. He pulled back and looked at her. “You’ve got something on your face.”
“Where?”
“Here.” Then his mouth was on hers again, and Felicity opened her legs and wrapped them around his waist. Damn their clothing. Why did he have to be dressed? She remembered what his body had been like when they were together, all tight muscles and long lines, and her mouth watered at the memory.
Her hands went to the front of his shirt…and she hesitated.
“I want you,” she said simply. “Even if it’s against the rules.”
He caught his breath. “If we do this…”
“If we do this, it’s because we both want it, and we can still—” It was overpowering, how much she needed his body on hers. “We can still go back. We can make a new decision every day, if that’s what—”
He kissed her again, fierce and hot. “I need you, too.”
Rafael’s hands went to the front of her pants and he pulled her off the counter before yanking them down. He dropped them to the floor. His own belt clinked as he unbuckled it. And then she was in his arms again, being lifted back to the counter.
Felicity didn’t have another chance to bother with his shirt.
He spread her wide on the counter and stroked her between her legs. She was already wet, she knew that, she could feel it—but at his touch she fell into a greedy heat.
“Please, Rafael, hurry, hurry…” She didn’t know why she was begging him to hurry. Was it because someone could walk in at any moment, or because she needed this more than she could find the words to say?
“Wait for me.”
He was gone and back in a small eternity, the foil packet of a condom in his hand.
Rafael entered her in one powerful thrust, and Felicity hooked her legs around his hips. Oh, it felt so good, it felt so good to be filled this way. Rafael was relentless, taking the rhythm hard, and Felicity knew she could lose herself in this for a long time. It felt so deliciously dirty, having sex like this in the kitchen, so dirty…
He slipped a hand between them and teased at her clit, slowing down just long enough to coax her into a shuddering orgasm, then another. Rafael followed her into his own release soon after, his hands gripping the taut flesh of her bottom tightly, his face pressed into her neck, all of those tense muscles on display.
She held on tight long after he was done, both of them breathing hard. Rafael lifted his face from her shoulder and looked into her eyes. “That was good,” he said, still catching his breath. “That was so good.”
“That was like it was at the beginning,” she said with a giddy laugh. “Remember that?”
“How could I forget?” He pressed his mouth to her collarbone. “I’ve never been that happy. Until right now.”
“I haven’t either,” Felicity said, wonderingly. She hadn’t. It had been so stressful, with moving, with the press, that it hadn’t occurred to her that happiness could be found right here with Rafael.
Maybe.
8
The trip to the zoo wasn’t just a trip to the zoo, no matter how much Rafael wanted it to be.
There would be a speech, and open questions from the press. They might not take kindly to Felicity. The media reception of the grocery outing had been mostly positive, sure, but there had been a few articles questioning whether Felicity herself was a stunt. This interview needed to convince the country that Felicity was going to become queen because they were in love.
Rafael pulled the notecard with his main talking points for the speech out of his lapel pocket and gave it another glance. Felicity didn’t seem to notice. She was talking to Hope about all the animals they were going to see at the zoo. “…bears, penguins, and rabbits…” she was saying. “Won’t there, Rafael?”
Hope held up her worn teddy bear. “This bear.”
“Yes, sweetheart,” he answered. “That’s a bear, too.”
“Mr. Bear isn’t a real bear,” Felicity said with a comfortable little laugh, and Rafael was surprised to find out that he’d come to think of Mr. Bear as part of the family. Almost like a real person. Was that what parenthood was like?
“Felicity…” They only had a few more minutes before they arrived at the zoo. “I just want to be sure you’re prepared for what’s coming.”
She patted at his leg, still looking at Hope. “We don’t have to go over this again. I think I’ll be fine.” Then she seemed to realize that this was not a comforting response and turned to smile at Rafael. “It’ll be fine.”
But he wasn’t sure that it would be. He’d tried to approach Felicity several times over the last week to go over the questions the press might ask, and every time, she’d deftly steered the conversation into a totally different direction.
“It’s a different kind of appearance,” he pressed on. “Members of the media will have more access this time. Not like at the grocery store.”
“Do you think they’ll be interested in the bears, too?” she joked.
“Bear!” cried Hope, giggling.
“I think they will be,” said Felicity. Then she was off and running, back to the conversation about all the animals with Hope. It was, he had to admit, a talent he was a bit in awe of…and a little suspicious of. She’d left him once, and he did not want to be left again. She was just so adept at changing the subject, redirecting the conversation… Of course, there was one positive: Felicity had an innate talent that many people outside the royal family had to learn through hard work. She could somehow get him to express his feelings without ever getting around to expressing her own.
“I want it to go well,” he said, aware that he was falling right back into that same pattern. The car pulled up to the curb in front of the zoo’s entrance. He was almost out of time. “For all of us.”
Felicity turned to face him, and the memory of her red-faced and spent on his kitchen counter flashed into his mind. This was not the time to think about that.
The moment they stepped out of the vehicle, Rafael felt his defenses go up. The press corps, it turned out, would follow them throughout their tour of the zoo. Felicity took this in stride, loading Hope into the stroller and carrying gamely on as the director personally took them to each of the exhibits. “Birds!” Hope cried inside the penguin house. “Many birds.” Felicity seemed totally absorbed in all the animals, crouching down next to Hope whenever they stopped to point out what they were seeing.
The press, Rafael couldn’t help noticing, loved it. They snapped photo after photo of the three of them, of Hope’s enchantment, and of Felicity being an attentive, involved mother. And when Rafael took Hope out of the stroller and lifted her up so she could see the giraffes, the shutters on their cameras went into a frenzy.
Then it was time for the speech, followed by questions. There was a little area cordoned off back by the entrance and Rafael stepped forward. The words tumbled from his mouth without much thought—the speech was about how the zoo provided an essential experience for the children of Stolvenia—but then he came to its natural conclusion.
The first question, as he suspected, went to Felicity.
“Felicity, how did Hope like the zoo?”
Felicity smiled, stepping up next to Rafael. “She loved it.” There was a slight hitch as she hesitated. “It’s a wonderful place to visit.”
Then she reached out and took Rafael’s hand.
This was tiptoeing up to the line of breaking protocol. It wasn’t technically against the rules to hold hands in public, but Rafael felt them inching closer.
Felicity also forgot to wear pantyhose, which he didn’t personally have a problem with. What was he going to do about either thing now? Nothing. He couldn’t pull his hand away, and he didn’t really want to.
“You have a wonderful resource here,” Felicity finished, sounding stronger now that she was touching him. “I think Hope would stay all day if she didn’t need a nap.”
There was a chuckle from the reporters, but then another man pushed his way forward. “Felicity, don’t you think the people of Stolvenia have a right to decide how our most precious resources are funded?”
Her grip on his hand tightened, and Rafael stifled the urge to step in front of her.
“I think…” Felicity blinked. “I think the people of Stolvenia have every right to express their thoughts about all…funding…to the government.” She stood up a little straighter. “In fact, I know that Prince Artur has been working closely on forming committees to do just that. If you’ll leave your name, I can get back to you with the correct contact information.”
Back at the palace, when Hope was in bed and the two of them were on Rafael’s couch, he reflected on that moment. When push came to shove, Felicity could handle herself like a member of the royal family, albeit a new one. Which was exactly what she was.
Felicity took another sip of her wine and rested her head against the back of the sofa with a contented sigh. “Hope loved the zoo. She wouldn’t stop talking about it at bedtime. I’ll have to get her a few zoo books.”
“Don’t spare it another thought,” Rafael told her. “I’ll have someone go to town and get them tomorrow.”
Felicity turned her head and beamed at him, but after a moment, the silence turned into something else. “So…this counts as absolutely private time, doesn’t it?”
“Of course,” Rafael said automatically.
“No more visitors for the day? No more staff?” It hit him then, what she was hinting at.
“No. They’re off for the night.” He set his wine on the table next to them.
“I don’t have anything on my schedule,” Felicity said thoughtfully. “No lessons. Far fewer rules, since we’re in private. No parenting to do, now that Hope is asleep and the nanny is listening for her…”
“What are you suggesting?” Rafael slid closer to Felicity and put his arm around her. She snuggled into him.
“I’m suggesting that…” She took a moment to choose her words. “I’m suggesting that I want more of what we had in the kitchen last week.
“Hmm.” He pretended to gaze into nothingness, considering. “That was good…but a little frantic, don’t you think?” He took Felicity’s wine from her hand and put it next to his. “For tonight, I think we’ll have to…” He took her fully in his arms and tipped her back onto the sofa. “I think we’ll have to take it a bit slower.”
“Mmmm.” Felicity stretched her arms above her head as Rafael kissed down the side of her neck to the boat neck of her shirt. She’d changed into it after they got back from the zoo, an
d now he couldn’t wait to take it off of her. “Oh, no,” she said, faux worry in her voice. “You’ll have to move my shirt if you want to—”
Rafael reached down and tugged it off before she could finish the sentence, Felicity sitting up to help. Then he reached around behind her and undid her bra. Her breasts were gorgeous, her nipples already peaked, and he tipped her back onto the sofa to have his way with them. First, he circled one nipple with the pad of his thumb, then the other, and when he had her moaning, he pressed his mouth to hers and drank in those sweet sounds.
Felicity’s eyes flew open when he pulled back to take a breath. “I want to see you, too.”
That was an easy thing to grant her. He stood up and stripped off his clothes, naked in a matter of moments, and she sprawled on the sofa, looking at him with wide eyes. Wow, she mouthed, and Rafael had never felt such pride.
He helped her wriggle out of her jeans, then panties, and busied himself between her legs, licking and teasing for several minutes before Felicity pulled him up. “I’m ready,” she panted. “I’m ready.”
He had condoms hidden in the drawer of one of the side tables, and he rolled one on. Then he positioned himself between her legs, and this time he felt only his own urgency. They wouldn’t be interrupted, and he savored every single moment of entering her, inch by inch.
Felicity seemed to be savoring it too, with her eyes closed and her arms draped lazily over his back. She ran her fingernails lightly over the skin there as he pumped into her and rocked her hips upward, into his, meeting every movement. It was the kind of slow and sweet sex they’d never seemed to have time for before she left for America. Rafael’s need for her built steadily, unwaveringly rising to a crescendo that left him breathing hard. Even after his climax, he stayed inside her, his body still responding to hers as he worked his hips against her clit until she came with a shuddering gasp.
When it was over, Felicity smiled, her eyes still closed. “I could get used to that,” she said into his ear, making no move to separate them. Rafael didn’t mind this at all. He could see himself staying right here, on this sofa, with her forever.
European Billionaire Beaus: The Complete Series Page 26